Fully passive conductive-bridging solid state RF switch

Abstract

This study reports the design and experimental results of a fully-passive solid-state RF switch based on the Conductive Bridging Memory Technology, popularly known as CBRAM. The developed device is a shunt mode RF switch based on a Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structure with Copper-Nafion-Aluminum switching layers on a Coplanar Waveguide (CPW) transmission line, operational in the DC to 3GHz range. DC pulses in the range +12V to-20V are used to operate the switch. The design is initially simulated using the FEM based CST microwave Studio and then realized and validated on a low cost FR4 substrate, and without using any sophisticated clean room technology.